Moga DTO, driver held for graft

The vigilance bureau has caught the Moga district transport officer (DTO) and his driver red-handed on Thursday on charges of accepting Rs 16,000 in bribe from a truck owner.

he vigilance team also searched the record of the DTO office. It is the second time in Moga that a DTO has been arrested for taking bribe from transporters.

Sources said the vigilance team also rounded up Didar Singh and Kuldeep Singh, two gunmen of the DTO, for questioning.

A special team of the vigilance bureau from SAS Nagar, led by SP (vigilance) Hargobind Singh, raided the office of DTO Gurtej Singh, where he, along with his driver Sukhjit Singh, was accepting bribe from transporter Avtar Singh of Rampura Phul in Bathinda district.

Bikramjit Singh, DSP (vigilance), who was part of the team, said transporters Avtar Singh and Nirmal Singh had complained to the vigilance department that they had 69 trucks which often went to Pathankot via Moga for loading stone crusher and cement. According to them, the transport department often stopped the trucks and harassed the drivers demanding Rs 400 per truck per month, he added.

When Avtar Singh approached DTO Gurtej Singh and his driver Sukhjit Singh with regard to the issue, the two demanded Rs 27,000 from him.

While Gurtej and Sukhjit were taking Rs 16,000 as the first instalment of the bribe, the vigilance team raided the DTO office and caught them in the presence of government officials, said an official.

The team also searched the house of the DTO at Moga, but no incriminating documents or money were found from there.